1856 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Events

 * Henry Wallis exhibits his romantic painting of The Death of Chatterton in London with the young poet and novelist George Meredith posing as his 18th-century predecessor Thomas Chatterton.

United Kingdom

 * Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
 * Aurora Leigh (first published November 15, dated 1857)
 * Poems (see also Poems 1844, 1850, 1853)
 * Sydney Dobell, England in Time of War
 * Edward Fitzgerald, written anonymously, Salaman and Absal
 * Walter Savage Landor, Antony and Octavius
 * Coventry Patmore, The Espousals (The Angel in the House, Volume 2; see also The Betrothal 1854, Faithful for Ever 1860, The Victories of Love 1863)
 * Wesley family, The Bards of Epworth, anthology

United States

 * George Henry Boker, Plays and Poems
 * Thomas Holley Chivers, Birth–Day Song of Liberty
 * William Wilberforce Lord, Andre
 * Mortimer Thomson, writing under the pen name "Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B." (Without the pen name's abbreviations: "Queer Kritter Philander Doesticks, Perfect Brick"), Plu-ri-bus-tah, A Song That's by No Author, a satire of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Hiawatha
 * Francois Dominique Rouquette, Fleurs d'Amerique
 * Charles Sangster, The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay and Other Poems , Canadian poet published in New York
 * Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, second edition
 * John Greenleaf Whittier, The Panorama and Other Poems

Other

 * Charles Sangster, The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay and Other Poems , Canadian poet published in New York by subscription

Works published in other languages

 * Aleardo Aleardi, Il Monte Circello ("Mount Circello"), Italy
 * Juris Alunāns, Songs, Latvia
 * Victor Hugo, Les Contemplations, France

Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * January 9 – Lizette Woodworth Reese (died 1935), American
 * January 22 – A. D. Godley (died 1925), Irish-born English classical scholar and writer of light verse
 * March 4 – Toru Dutt (died 1877), Indian, writing in Sanskrit, French and English
 * April 7 – Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (died 1920), poet and emir of Diiriye Guure
 * August 20 – Jakub Bart-Ćišinski (died 1909), Sorbian poet, writer, playwright and translator
 * Date not known – Kattakkayathil Cherian Mappila (died 1936), Indian, Malayalam-language poet

Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
 * February 17 – Heinrich Heine (born 1797), German
 * May 2 – James Gates Percival (born 1795), American poet and scientist
 * July 21 – Emil Aarestrup (born 1806), Danish
 * July 29 – Karel Havlíček Borovský, Czech
 * Date not known – Irayimman Thampi (born 1782), Indian, Malayalam-language poet in the court of Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma; wrote ' 'Omana tinkal kitjavo' ', a "cradle song" (or lullaby) still popular in Malayalam